


The Power of Merch

by Shiloa



Series: Revealing Attire [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, dorks being dorks, post-reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-04-04
Packaged: 2018-05-31 04:12:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6455242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shiloa/pseuds/Shiloa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a sequel to Revealing Attire, although it could probably work as a stand-alone.  Post-reveal, Adrien and Marinette find themselves engaged in a Ladybug and Chat Noir merchandise war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Power of Merch

Marinette sighed, staring at the back of Adrien’s head instead of taking notes as she should be.  That by itself would not be particularly unusual, but two days ago, she and Chat Noir had discovered each other’s identities, and although she was positive things would work out and their partnership and friendship would end up stronger than before, right now things were… strange.  They had agreed to take things slowly with their relationship as civilians, both to avoid suspicion and because despite the fact that she was thrilled that Chat Noir was _Adrien_ of all people, it was taking some mental gymnastics to try and align the two very different people into one in her head.  She assumed Adrien was going through something similar with Marinette and Ladybug.

She was startled out of her thoughts by the end of class.  She looked down at what should have been her notes and groaned when she was met with a nearly empty page.  Alya laughed.  “Don’t worry, you can copy mine later.”

“Thanks Alya, you’re the best,” Marinette smiled, turning to leave.

“Hey, Marinette, wait a minute!”  She turned to Adrien, who was smiling and fidgeting with something.

“Oh!  Y-yeah, what’s up?” She asked, and his smile widened into a grin.  She narrowed her eyes, suddenly suspicious.

“I heard from a fairly reliable source that you’re a fan of Chat Noir, right?” He asked, grin slowly morphing into a smirk as she frowned slightly, continuing on before she had a chance to reply.  “I saw this the other day and thought of you,” he finished, thrusting out what had to be the tackiest pen she had ever seen.  Her eyes bugged out, taking in the oversized black pen covered in lime green pawprints, complete with cat ears on the top.

Alya, always the reliable wingwoman, misinterpreted her silence.  “Oh, that’s _perfect_ for Marinette!” she enthused, nudging her still silent friend.  “It’s so kind of you to think of her, she’s always talking about how Chat Noir deserves more recognition, and - ”

“Yes!  Thanks Alya!” Marinette cut her off, turning red and speaking in a distinctly higher pitch than normal.  She took the pen, and finally looked back up at Adrien, expression shifting to a smile he recognized as meaning that Ladybug had a plan.  He gulped.  “Thank you, Adrien,” she said sweetly.  “That’s very thoughtful, and I’m sure I’ll find _some way_ to repay you.”  She gave him a smirk of her own, before walking past him out of the classroom.  He stared after her for a minute, wondering for the first time if he had gotten in over his head.

 

From there, things escalated quickly.

 

Not only did Marinette actually _use_ the pen in every class for the rest of the day, she came in the next morning with a pair of Ladybug socks, which she presented to Adrien ‘because she heard he was really into Ladybug’.  He had grinned at her and worn them the next day, when he had presented her with a notebook featuring a large cartoon picture of Chat Noir in action, which she immediately began using for notes.  As the days became weeks, Marinette and Adrien both accumulated larger and larger collections of Chat Noir and Ladybug themed merchandise, including stickers, pencils, and on one occasion after a particularly nasty akuma fight, Ladybug-decorated cookies.  As an unspoken rule, every ‘gift’ was aggressively treasured and used at every opportunity.

As the weeks became months, and Marinette and Adrien became more comfortable reconciling the hero they knew with the classmate they were getting to know, neither showed any sign of being willing to concede the silent merch war.  The gifts themselves, however, changed over time.  Stickers and pencils turned into a Chat Noir phone case, a Ladybug t-shirt, a Chat Noir bookbag.  One day in January, Adrien had come up to Marinette, blushing slightly, and presented her with a Chat Noir hat, complete with ears, because “You looked cold yesterday.”  She had flushed, looking down and thanking him quietly.

A week later, she had presented him with a custom-made Ladybug hoodie.

 

“So according to Nino we’re dating,” Chat Noir said, a few days later, as they looked over the rooftops in the clear night. 

“Oh?” Ladybug replied, sitting with her legs dangling over the side of the building.

“Yeah.  Apparently ‘friends don’t give each other gifts every other day and spend all their free time alone together,’” Chat replied, flopping down next to her.

Ladybug laughed.  “Alya may have mentioned something similar.  To be fair, though, half the time when we’re sneaking off to be alone together it’s to save the city,” she smirked.  He laughed, and they settled into comfortable silence for a few minutes.

“…We could be.”  She turned to look at him, startled.  He continued looking over the skyline, ears red.  “Dating, I mean.  If you want.”

Ladybug flushed, still staring at him, while he continued to resolutely avoid eye contact.  “…Do you want to?” she asked quietly. 

He nodded, turning slightly to look at her hesitantly.  “Only if you do.  If you’d rather be friends, I – “

And suddenly, she was kissing him.

 

The next morning at school, Alya and Marinette were standing outside waiting for class.  “Tell me everything!” Alya squealed, and Marinette laughed, blushing.

“I can’t tell you _everything_!” She protested.  “But it was amazing,” she continued with a sigh.

“Well it certainly took you long enough,” Alya smirked, nudging Marinette with her shoulder.  “And speaking of which, here comes Prince Charming now,” she added, cutting off Marinette’s indignant reply and lightly shoving her in the direction of Adrien, who was walking up and waving to her.  Alya grabbed Nino and dragged him off, cheerfully waving goodbye.

“Hi,” Adrien said, slightly pink in the face.  “I got you something.  You know, to make it official.”

Marinette frowned slightly.  “You didn’t have to do that,” she said, watching him pull out a small jewelry box.

“I know, but I wanted to,” he said, looking down at the box and smiling. He thrust it towards her.  “Here.”

She smiled fondly at him, feeling heat rise in her face.  Looking down, she slowly opened the box.  Inside, nestled on red velvet, was an exquisitely crafted pendant featuring a black cat.  She looked up at Adrien, who grinning in a way that was somehow both sheepish and smug.

She punched him in the shoulder.  And then she kissed him.

**Author's Note:**

> ...And she went on to wear it literally every day.
> 
> Wasn't expecting to do a sequel, but I thought this was funny so I wanted to write it, haha. I love these two losers.
> 
> I’m on tumblr! Shiloa.tumblr.com


End file.
